Religion and education

In England and Wales, a significant number of state funded schools are faith schools with the vast majority Christian (mainly either of Church of England or Roman Catholic) though there are also Jewish, Muslim and Sikh faith schools. Faith schools follow the same national curriculum as state schools, though with the added ethos of the host religion. Until 1944 there was no requirement for state schools to provide religious education or worship, although most did so. The Education Act 1944 introduced a requirement for a daily act of collective worship and for religious education but did not define what was allowable under these terms. The act contained provisions to allow parents to withdraw their children from these activities and for teachers to refuse to participate. The Education Reform Act 1988 introduced a further requirement that the majority of collective worship be "wholly or mainly of a broadly Christian character"[4] . In recent years schools have increasingly failed to comply with the collective worship rules - in 2004 David Bell, the Chief Inspector of Schools said that "at present more than three-quarters of schools fail to meet this requirement."[5] Religious studies is still an obligatory subject in the curriculum, but tends to aim at providing an understanding of the main faiths of the world rather than at instilling a strictly Christian viewpoint.

Northern Ireland

Christianity is the main religion in Northern Ireland though the main denominations are organised on an all-Ireland basis. After that, though dwarfed by the Christian churches, the country also has small Muslim, Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist and Jewish communities. The 2001 UK census found that 40.3% of the population claimed Roman Catholic affiliation, 20.7% in the Presbyterian Church, 15.3% with the Church of Ireland and 3.5% with the Methodist Church. About 13.8% stated no religion, and members of other religions constituted 0.3%.

The Presbyterian Church in Ireland, closely linked to the Church of Scotland in terms of theology and history, is the second largest church and largest protestant denomination. It is followed by the Church of Ireland (Anglican) which was the state church of Ireland until it was disestablished in the nineteenth century. In 2002, the much smaller Methodist Church in Ireland signed a covenant for greater cooperation and potential ultimate unity with the Church of Ireland.[6]

Religion and education

Northern Ireland has a highly segregated education system. 95% of pupils attend either maintained (Catholic) schools or controlled schools, which are open to children of all faiths and none, though in practice most pupils are from the Protestant community.

The Scottish Episcopal Church is Scotland's third largest christian church with around 39,000 members.[10] It dates from the final establishment of Presbyterianism in Scotland in 1690, when it split from the Church of Scotland. Though part of the Anglican Communion, it is not a 'daughter church' of the Church of England.

Methodist

The Methodist Church of Great Britain, (which includes congregations in the Channel Islands, the Isle of Man, Malta and Gibraltar) has around 270,000 members and 6,000 churches, though only around 3,000 members in 50 congregations are in Scotland. In the 1960s, it made ecumenical overtures to the Church of England, aimed at church unity. Formally, these failed when they were rejected by the Church of England's General Synod in 1972. However, conversations and co-operation continued, leading on 1 November 2003 to the signing of a covenant between the two churches.[11]

The Methodist Church in Ireland covers the whole of the island of Ireland, including Northern Ireland where it is the fourth largest denomination.

Though Islam was not legalised until the Trinitarian Act in 1812, recent estimates suggest a total of as high as 2.4 million Muslims over all the UK,[23][24] The vast majority of Muslims in the UK live in England and Wales: of 1,591,000 Muslims recorded at the 2001 Census,[25] 1,536,015 were living in England and Wales,[26] where they form 3% of the population; 42,557 were living in Scotland, forming 0.84% of the population[27]; and 1,943 were living in Northern Ireland.[28]

Hinduism

Hinduism was the religion of 558,342 people in Great Britain according to the 2001 census[33] but an estimate in a British newspaper in 2007 has put the figure as high as 1.5 Million.[34] Although most British Hindus live in England, with half living in London alone,[35] small communities also exist in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales.

A report in August 2007 by University of Manchester historian Dr Yaakov Wise stated that 75% of all births in the Jewish community were to ultra-orthodox, Haredi parents, and that the increase of ultra-orthodox Jewry has led to a significant rise in the proportion of British Jews who are ultra-orthodox. The Jewish population is close to 300,000 people. However, this figure did not include Jews who identified 'by ethnicity only' in England and Wales or Scottish Jews who identified as Jewish by upbringing but held no current religion. This with various studies that from within Jewish communities and particularly in some strictly Orthodox areas, residents ignored the voluntary question on religion following the advice of their religious leaders which has resulted in a serious undercount, therefore it is ultimately difficult to give an accurate number on the total UK Jewish population. It may be even more than double the official estimates, heavily powered by the very high birth rate of orthodox families and British people who are Jewish by race but not religion; as it currently stands, the Jewish as a race section is not documented on the census. [36]

Sikhism

Sikhism was recorded as the religion of 336,179 people in the United Kingdom at the time of the 2001 Census.[37] While England is home to the majority of Sikhs in the UK, small communities also exist in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales.

The first recorded Sikh settler in the UK was Maharaja Duleep Singh, dethroned and exiled in 1849 at the age of 14, after the Anglo-Sikh wars. The first Sikh Gurdwara (temple) was established in 1911, in Putney, London. The first wave of Sikh migration came in the 1950s, mostly of men from the Punjab seeking work in industries such as foundries and textiles. These new arrivals mostly settled in London, Birmingham and West Yorkshire. Thousands of Sikhs from East Africa followed.

Buddhism

The earliest Buddhist influence on Britain came through its imperial connections with South East Asia, and as a result the early connections were with the Theravada traditions of Burma, Thailand, and Sri Lanka. The tradition of study resulted in the foundation of the Pali Text Society, which undertook the task of translating the Pali Canon of Buddhist texts into English. Buddhism as a path of practice was pioneered by the Theosophists, Madame Blavatsky and Colonel Olcott, and in 1880 they became the first Westerners to receive the refuges and precepts, the ceremony by which one traditionally becomes a Buddhist.

Bahá'í Faith

The Bahá'í Faith in the United Kingdom has a historical connection with the earliest phases of the Bahá'í Faith starting in 1845 and has had a major effect on the development of communities of the religion in far flung nations around the world. It is estimated that between 1951 and 1993, Bahá'ís from the United Kingdom settled in 138 countries.[40] There are about 5000 Bahá'ís of the UK.[41]

Today, some minor parties are explicitly 'religious' in ideology: two 'Christian' parties - the Christian Party and the Christian Peoples Alliance, fielded joint candidates at the 2009 European Parliament elections and increased their share of the vote to come eighth, with 249,493 votes (1.6 percent of total votes cast), and in London, where the CPA has three councillors,[43] the Christian parties picked up 51,336 votes (2.9 percent of the vote), up slightly from the 45,038 gained in 2004.[44]

The British media often portrays a cultural scepticism towards religion.[citation needed] British comedy in particular has a history of satire and parody on the subject, the most iconic example probably being Monty Python film Life of Brian. Religious mockery, or open disbelief in any religion, is not regarded as a taboo in the British media.

Although School uniform codes are generally drawn up flexibly enough to accommodate compulsory items of religious dress, some schools have banned wearing the crucifix, arguing that wearing a crucifix is not a requirement of Christianity, and that necklaces themselves are banned as well, not just crucifixes.[50]

Some polls have shown that public opinion in the United Kingdom generally tends towards a suspicion or outright disapproval of radical or evangelical religiosity, though moderate groups and individuals are rarely subject to injurious treatment.[51]

Some churches have warned that new equality laws being considered could force them to go against their faith when hiring staff.[52]

Statistics

Several different sets of figures exist which aim to categorise the religious affiliations, beliefs and practices of UK residents. Differences in the wording and context of the questions can give substantially different results. The 2001 census found that 76.8% of the UK population had a religion, with Christianity being the most prevalent (71.6% of respondents described their religion as such)[53], while the British Social Attitudes Survey survey produced by the National Centre for Social Research in the same year reported that 58% considered themselves to "belong to" a religion.[54]

An Ipsos MORI poll in 2003 reported that 43% considered themselves to be "a member of an organised religion" (18% were "a practising member of an organised religion")[55] An ICM survey in 2006 found that only 33% considered themselves to be "a religious person", with 43% saying they never attended religious services.[56]

A Eurobarometer opinion poll in 2005 reported that 38% "believed there is a God", 40% believe there is "some sort of spirit or life force" and 20% said "I'don't believe there is any sort of spirit, God or life force".[57] A survey in 2007 suggested that 42% of adults resident in the UK prayed, with one in six praying on a daily basis.[58]

The EU-funded European Social Survey to be published in April 2009 has found that only 12% of British people belong to a church.[59]

The 2001 census contained voluntary questions on religious affiliation. In Scotland and Northern Ireland the census also contained questions on the religion in which a person had been brought up. As a result of comparisons with survey data The Office for National Statistics concluded that the census results for England and Wales were more comparable to the results for religion of upbringing in Scotland and Northern Ireland than for current religious affiliation.[62] At the time the Census was carried out, there was an Internet campaign that encouraged people to record their religion as Jedi or "Jedi Knight". The number of people who stated Jedi was 390,000 (0.7 per cent of the population).[63][64]

A survey in 2002 found Christmas attendance at Anglican churches in England varied between 10.19% of the population in the diocese of Hereford, down to just 2.16% in Manchester.[65] Church attendance at Christmas in some dioceses was up to three times the average for the rest of the year. Overall church attendance at Christmas has been steadily increasing in recent years; a 2005 poll found that 43% expected to attend a church service over the Christmas period, in comparison with 39% and 33% for corresponding polls taken in 2003 and 2001 respectively.[66] In a 2004 YouGov poll, 44 per cent of UK citizens responded affirmatively to the question "Do you believe in God?".[67]

In the UK overall, a Guardian/ICM poll in 2006 found that 33% describe themselves as "a religious person" while 82% see religion as a cause of division and tension between people.[56]

Society in the United Kingdom is markedly more secular than in the past and the number of churchgoers fell over the last half of the 20th century. According to the British Humanist Association 36% of the population is humanist, and may, by the same token, be considered outright atheist[68]. The National Secular Society is among bodies aiming to reduce the influence of religion. According to the 2001 census, however, 71.6% of population declared themselves to be Christian, a further 2.7% as Muslim and 1% as Hindu. Only 15.5% said they had "no religion" and 7.3% did not reply to the question.[69] The problem with interpreting these results is that they do not reveal the intensity of religious belief or non-belief. See also Status of religious freedom in the United Kingdom.

The Tearfund Survey in 2007 found 53% of people in the UK identifying themselves as Christian and only 7% as practising Christians. 10% attend church weekly and two-thirds had not gone to church in the past year.[70][71] The Tearfund Survey also found that two thirds of UK adults (66%) or 32.2 million people have no connection with The Church at present (nor with another religion). These people are evenly divided between those who have been in the past but have since left (16 million) and those who have never been in their lives (16.2 million).

A December 2007 report by Christian Research showed that Roman Catholicism had become the best-attended services of Christian denominations in England, with average attendance at Sunday Mass of 861,000, compared to 852,000 attending Anglican services. Attendance at Anglican services had declined by 20% between 2000 and 2006, while attendance at Catholic services, boosted by large-scale immigration from Poland and Lithuania, had declined by only 13%. In Scotland attendance at Church of Scotland services declined by 19% and attendance at Catholic services fell by 25%.[72]

A Tearfund survey on prayer found in 2007 that 42% of adults in the UK pray (outside church or religious services).[73]

Time series showing the religion that people consider themselves to belong to.

British Social Attitudes Surveys have shown the proportion of those in Great Britain who consider they "belong to" Christianity to have fallen from 66% in 1983 to 48% in 2006.

The disparity between the 2001 census data and the above polls has been put down to both the decline in religious adherence in the UK since 2001 and a phenomenon of cultural religiosity, whereby many who do not believe in gods still identify with a religion because of its role in their upbringing or its importance to their family.[74]

^Evans, Dr. David (2007). The History of British Magic After Crowley. Oxford: Hidden Publishing. pp. 70–81. ISBN 978-0-9555237-0-0.

^ Jenny Percival. Pagan prisoners allowed twig wands in cells. Scotland on Sunday. 11 May 2008. Retrieved: 14 February 2009. Citation: "There are estimated to be one million Pagans in Britain – around 300 of whom are in prison. There are about 30,000 in Scotland."